Since the start of this year Henri has been representing Switzerland. His mum is Finnish and he has lived in Finland most of his life, but nowadays he is mostly living and training in Switzerland. His dad is a former Swiss pro player Sandro Della Piana. Henri won the Boys 16 & under European Championship in 2008 and played in RG boys singles semis in 2009. He played for Finland in Davis Cup against Monaco in July 2009 and kept the tie alive by beating Clement Morel in 5 sets. Henri is coming back after a long injury break in 2010. He is playing a futures tournament in Israel this week and he's been doing really well :)

Keep your eyes on him people :cool:

There's an article in Finnish to confirm it: http://www.hs.fi/urheilu/artikkeli/Tennislupaus+Henri+Laaksonen+ryhtyy+edustamaan+Sve itsi%C3%A4/1135262893554

Laaksonen got nominated for the first time for the Swiss Davis Cup team for the Play Off against Netherlands and said that it will be a unique opportunity to practice with topplayers.

Eden

09-23-2012, 09:44 PM

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Smoke944

09-23-2012, 09:45 PM

Nice week for him, he lost in the final in a 15k in Portugal.

Smoke944

09-29-2012, 07:15 PM

In the final of another 15k in Portugal, let's see if he can take the title this time, GL

LutherReigns

10-25-2012, 12:53 PM

ATP Basel

lost to PH Mathieu 2:6 5:7

I was in Basel and saw the game. In Set 1, PHM played incredible, like a Top 10-Player, so Henri had no chance for sure. In Set 2 after PHM played "normal", Henri had good chances to win the Set. His problem is the 2nd Serve - is too slow at this moment.

What i want to say: He's got good potential. He should become Top 100 in the next 2 years. Next, he will play Challenger in Geneva. Hopefully, he can reach something.

RNW

10-30-2012, 09:31 AM

ATP Basel

lost to PH Mathieu 2:6 5:7

I was in Basel and saw the game. In Set 1, PHM played incredible, like a Top 10-Player, so Henri had no chance for sure. In Set 2 after PHM played "normal", Henri had good chances to win the Set. His problem is the 2nd Serve - is too slow at this moment.

What i want to say: He's got good potential. He should become Top 100 in the next 2 years. Next, he will play Challenger in Geneva. Hopefully, he can reach something.

Thanks for the informations.
Very interesting.
I was not able to see the match because of WTA Masters.

For those who didn't see the match against Jaziri: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uPMFBomvP9k

RNW

11-06-2012, 06:56 AM

ATP Genf Challenger

QF: Laaksonen (WC) d. Marchenko 63 67 (4) 75

Was 0-3 in third set. Great win again.

SF: Bachinger d. Laaksonen (WC) 75 61

35 Points for Laaksonen, great week.

New ranking: No. 310. With 140 points.

(From 360 up to 310. Very good)

RNW

11-06-2012, 07:01 AM

For those who didn't see the match against Jaziri: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uPMFBomvP9k

Thanks for posting that.

His forehand is very nice, he has several options, he can hit with a lot of spin, nice crosscourt, nice longline forehand. Serve is alright as well. He moves ok. Sometimes he does not know what to play on backhand: Some slices look good, some not. He clearly prefers to play the forehand and therefore is court positioning is quite extreme sometimes, but because Jaziri was not able to play flat backhand longline, it was no problem.

RNW

11-18-2012, 07:58 PM

He plays Toyota this week. A travel to Japan to play a small tournament shows that he want to win some points now as soon as possible.

He played ok. Some things were very nice and great.
Some of his forehands are huge, he can play with huge topspin.
His serve is alright.

All in all, he clearly showed that he has the potential to reach Top 200 (this year.)

But there were not so good things as well.
His backhand is not very impressive, some ugly errors.
He did not play many good topspin forehands.
The slice is more of a Plan B because he probably do not want to play topspin backhands all the time.
Movement is up-and-down, ok. And mentality ok as well.

All in all, a solid performance with some great shots.
Not very impressive throughout, but ok.

Sombrerero loco

02-11-2013, 06:02 PM

qualified into quimper challenger this week, as 8th seed
good luck in main draw!! get some victories please

Sombrerero loco

02-26-2013, 09:07 AM

facing ungur in some minutes, there will be a stream

LutherReigns

02-28-2013, 05:01 PM

He lost 67 26. It was a really bad draw for him. Somebody know when he plays next?

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Sombrerero loco

02-28-2013, 05:05 PM

he is not listed on swiss futures, so he may be playing some challenger qualies maybe? i dont know

Helevorn

04-06-2013, 02:32 PM

Won his QR1 match in Casablanca over Starace today! ;)

Sombrerero loco

04-06-2013, 02:33 PM

please win tomorrow too henri!!

LutherReigns

04-08-2013, 05:21 PM

What a win vs. Phau! Now against a WC-Guy in Main Draw :-)

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2. Rnd he lost vs. Monaco 46 26. Good first set, he leads in 1st set with a break

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Sombrerero loco

07-10-2013, 05:13 PM

32 points this week, very well done =DD

LutherReigns

07-11-2013, 06:51 PM

and now he received a WC for Gstaad. Cool!

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Sombrerero loco

07-11-2013, 07:20 PM

well deserved =D vamos henri =)

Eden

09-13-2013, 05:15 PM

Henri Laaksonen got expelled from Swiss Davis Cup team after an argument which took place on Thursday during practice with Stanislas Wawrinka.

Laaksonen should warm up with Wawrinka but didn't gave his best effort there and didn't do what Team Captain Severin Lüthi requested.

Laaksonen griped against Lüthi then.

Wawrinka said today in his press conference after his victory in the DC playoff that many of the younger players seem to believe that they can allow everything because there is no competition.

He said that he didn't liked the behaviour of Laaksonen: "Somone who is that young, ranked that low in the rankings and who is in the team just recently and always got supported from Swiss Tennis can't allow this."

Wawrinka asked for consequences for Laaksonen: "I hope that he gets punished from Swiss Tennis and he won't get much help in the next years and not many Wildcards."

He didn't wanted to be on the court with such a player. Laaksonen wouldn't be able to come further with such an attitude: "The best players are those who are modest."

It wouldn't be the first time that something like this happened with a young player. He would know that young players aged 20 or 21 would be asked if they wanted to be with the team. "When they don't get the guarantee then that they are at least sitting on the bench they don't come."

This would make him sad and would be a pity for Tennis in Switzerland. With such an attitude you wouldn't be able to make the move to the best players in the world and with this the future of Swiss Tennis would look dark.

Sombrerero loco

09-13-2013, 05:17 PM

cant believe that. i know him personally and he is a very nice guy

RNW

09-13-2013, 08:38 PM

Henri Laaksonen got expelled from Swiss Davis Cup team after an argument which took place on Thursday during practice with Stanislas Wawrinka.

Laaksonen should warm up with Wawrinka but didn't gave his best effort there and didn't do what Team Captain Severin Lüthi requested.

Laaksonen griped against Lüthi then.

Wawrinka said today in his press conference after his victory in the DC playoff that many of the younger players seem to believe that they can allow everything because there is no competition.

He said that he didn't liked the behaviour of Laaksonen: "Somone who is that young, ranked that low in the rankings and who is in the team just recently and always got supported from Swiss Tennis can't allow this."

Wawrinka asked for consequences for Laaksonen: "I hope that he gets punished from Swiss Tennis and he won't get much help in the next years and not many Wildcards."

He didn't wanted to be on the court with such a player. Laaksonen wouldn't be able to come further with such an attitude: "The best players are those who are modest."

It wouldn't be the first time that something like this happened with a young player. He would know that young players aged 20 or 21 would be asked if they wanted to be with the team. "When they don't get the guarantee then that they are at least sitting on the bench they don't come."

This would make him sad and would be a pity for Tennis in Switzerland. With such an attitude you wouldn't be able to make the move to the best players in the world and with this the future of Swiss Tennis would look dark.

Wow. Huge surprise. :eek:

What does "griped" mean? In that occasion?

Kat_YYZ

09-14-2013, 07:16 AM

There is something about it even on the Davis Cup site
NEUCHATEL, SWITZERLAND: It was touch and go for a moment in what proved to be a decisive fourth-set tiebreak, but Severin Luthi, the Swiss Davis Cup captain, in the end was vindicated by his decision to go with experience rather than youth when 32-year-old Marco Chiudinelli gave Switzerland a commanding 2-0 lead against Ecuador in their World Group play-off at Patinoire du Littoral in Neuchatel.

The Finnish-born 21-year-old Henri Laaksonen, who has played just one live rubber for his newly adopted country, thought he should have got the nod for the second rubber and when he made his dissatisfaction clear Luthi had no option but to discipline him, leaving him behind at the team’s hotel.

Meanwhile Chiudinelli repaid his captain’s faith in him with a gutsy 36 61 63 76(7) victory over the Ecuadorian No. 1 Julio-Cesar Campozano, staving off two sets points in the fourth-set tiebreak.

Stanislas Wawrinka, the Swiss No. 1 who had given his country a flying start earlier in the day with a straight sets win, described Laaksonen’s behaviour during training in the past few days as “unacceptable” and was firmly behind his captain’s decision to leave him out.

Luthi commented: “I wasn’t happy with his respect level. I think it’s important for the young guys that they learn about that. First of all I think it’s important that we give our team the best chance to win – you try to have the best atmosphere in the team – and the second thing is that it’s absolutely important that he learns those things - that’s why I took this decision.”

http://www.daviscup.com/en/news/156508.aspx

Eden

09-24-2013, 08:34 PM

Laaksonen got a letter of reprimand from Swiss Tennis and has to pay a fine which will be used for the young players of the association.
Beside this Henri won't get any financial remuneration from the encounter against Ecuador.

Single Handed

11-15-2013, 09:32 PM

Great week so far for Henri

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Sombrerero loco

11-15-2013, 10:50 PM

hyvaa henri :bowdown:

Eden

12-01-2013, 09:05 PM

Swiss Tennis put an Advent calendar on their website.

The first part is already hilarious :lol:

http://www.swisstennis.ch/advent/

Sombrerero loco

03-23-2014, 12:22 PM

henri playing the final on a 15k future this week in switzerland

ZakMcCrack

06-12-2014, 02:07 PM

Just watched a few games of Laaksonen vs Marcora (at the challenger in prague) and was quite disappointed with Henri's play (lost 1:6 2:6) - has he been struggling physically lately or what's the reason for him stagnating and not making a dent on the tour?

Sombrerero loco

06-12-2014, 03:05 PM

the scoreline :facepalm:

Eden

03-10-2015, 06:45 PM

No highlights from Henri's DC victories this weekend yet?

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He is the first player not named Federer and Wawrinka who got a victory for Switzerland in the DC World Group in 8 years :yeah: